SS Structural (Civ2)
Strategy SS Structurals (SSS) are the most important pieces of your spaceship. In order to be viable, a spaceship must have at the minimum of 15 SSSs on it. The relatively low cost of 80 shields makes it easier to produce many of them, and this is intentional. However, the more SS Modules and Components are built, the more SSS's you must build as well. However, each SSS adds mass to the ship. Without enough components, the SSSs will cause the ship to become unwieldy and slow, even if it can launch. Formula to estimate SSS's required A good way to estimate how many SSS's you will need depends on how many SS Modules (SSM's) and SS Components (SSC's) you will build. You must build a minmum of 1 set of SSM's and SSC's. However, you can build a maximum of 4 SSM sets and 8 SSC sets. So, you can estimate the amount of SSS's needed as follows: 3(Number of Module Sets) + 3(Number of Component Sets) < Number of Structurals required. 4(Number of Module Sets) + 4(Number of Component Sets) > Number of Structurals required. For instance, a ship that will take only 1 module set needs to have at least 15 SSS's. Therefore, the maximum number of SSS Components buildable for a 15 SSS ship must be less than 4 and greater than 2.75. This of course, is 3 SS Components built. However, the higher amount of components (which provide thrust and fuel) will result in a faster ship. Caveat to formula This formula provides a range of estimation. It is best usable when you build only one or two module sets. For spaceships with only one module set, use the formula when sets of components number 4 or above. Otherwise, the base amount of SSS's necessary is 15. {Therefore, a ship with 1 module set, and 15 SSS's can carry up to 3 component sets.} For spaceships with only two module sets, use the formula when sets of components number 6 or above. Otherwise, the base amount of SSS's necessary is 23. {Therefore, a ship with 2 module sets, and 23 SSS's can carry up to 5 component sets.} For spaceships with three module sets, the formula is only usable if component sets number the maximum of 8. Otherwise, the base is 31. {Therefore, a ship with 3 module sets, and 31 SSS's can carry up to 7 component sets.} A ship with four module sets must be borne by 39 SSS's irrespective of the amount of SS Components sets attached. {Therefore, a Spaceship with 4 SSM sets should use the maximum number of SSC sets since it can carry them anyway, and it will push flight time down from decades to years.} Civilopedia Entry The structural parts of a spaceship are the frame to which all other parts of the spaceship are attached. All spaceship components and modules must be connected to a structural section in order to function. Components and modules not connected to the frame are outlined in red on the spaceship display. See also *SS Component (Civ2) *SS Module (Civ2)